page_title: Arcadi Gaydamak
section_title: Politics
hierarchical_section_title: Arcadi Gaydamak / Biography / Politics
caption_attribution_description: Photo of Arcadi Gaydamak during a press conference
context_page_description: Arcadi Aleksandrovich Gaydamak is a Russian-born French-Israeli businessman, philanthropist, and President of the Congress of Jewish Religious Communities and Organizations of Russia. He emigrated to Israel at the age of 20 and lived on a kibbutz, then moved to France and opened a translation bureau.
  In the 1990s he was awarded the French Ordre national du Mérite and the Ordre du Mérite agricole for actions taken to rescue personnel in the War in Bosnia. In the AngolaGate scandal, he was convicted of failure to declare income. On 24 November 2015, he started serving a prison sentence at Fresnes prison in France for that tax issue.
  In the early 21st century, Gaydamak returned to Israel, where he founded Social Justice, a movement that became a political party. He ran for mayor of Jerusalem but did not win. He bought Hapoel Jerusalem, a professional basketball club. He also bought two newspapers, one in France and one in Russia. He directed the latter to take a pro-government/Vladimir Putin editorial stance. In Israel he has been a generous philanthropist.
context_section_description: In February 2007, seeing the social issues in Israel, Gaydamak founded a party devoted to socio-economic issues, which he named Social Justice. Although the organization was established as a social movement, he said it could become a political party if the circumstances warranted it. In late 2007, the party contemplated taking part in the 2008 municipal elections.
  Gaydamak ran for mayor of Jerusalem in November 2008, but his party won no seats on the city council. During the campaign, Gaydamak courted the East Jerusalem Palestinian vote. Gaydamak approached the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, Palestinian political figures and media, and came away with a near endorsement.
caption: Arcadi Gaydamak during a press conference, February 2007
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